MICROSOFT® SHAREPOINT™, also known as MICROSOFT® SHAREPOINT™ Products and Technologies, is a collection of products and software elements that includes a growing selection of components, web browser based collaboration functions, process management modules, search modules and a document-management platform. SHAREPOINT™ can be used to host web sites that access shared workspaces, information stores and documents, as well as host-defined applications such as blogs. Users can manipulate proprietary controls called “web parts” or interact with pieces of content such as lists and document libraries. The term “SHAREPOINT”™ can collectively refer to a number of products ranging from the base platform to various services. As used herein, the term “SHAREPOINT”™ is understood to encompass the broadest applicable meaning in terms of such components and applications, without limitation.
Standard SHAREPOINT™ functionality allows system developers the flexibility to deploy applications that can capture a variety of data with specific fields and then store that data in various buckets for further processing with workflows. See, for example, SHAREPOINT™ “Content Types,” “Fields” and “Lists.” Often, system developers like to use simplified data structures and eliminate unnecessary redundancy.
However, a serious limitation in SHAREPOINT™ makes it extremely difficult to link across data types and various buckets into which content may be placed.
Presently, MICROSOFT® SHAREPOINT™ provides a “Link” capability primarily using the “Lookup” field type. This field type allows an administrator to specify for a given SHAREPOINT™ field a “List” and “Display” field to which users will be able to make a selection. This Link capability is limited in several ways. For example, it will display all items to which the users have access in the list, regardless as to the underlying content type of the item. Also, the items displayed are returned from a single list, and the item that is being referenced must exist prior to selection. Additionally, the item that is being linked to has no way of referencing back to the item from which it was linked, and the mechanism for linking is a “Drop Down List Box,” from which the user can select an item—if there are numerous items, the user must scroll through the entire list to find the desired item.